This morning as I was reading in Mark, I noticed Jesus do something that I seem to only catch in Paul. I’m sure Jesus did it quiet often, but something about it caught my eye today.

He gave a list.

Jesus was teaching about things that make one “clean” or ‘unclean.”  His disciples had been fussed at because they were “unclean.” They hadn’t washed their hands and the religious leaders said – hey, they are unclean!  Jesus did some teaching on the truth of what makes someone unclean. He said what makes you unclean isn’t what’s on your hands, but what’s in your heart.

And then, He lists off some of this things.  Listen to what He says in Mark 7:

And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

And what always sticks out to me is this. It’s the same thing that Paul does a lot. He says the unclean things like sexual immorality, theft, murder, things like this and folks are thinking, yeah God!  Get ’em!

Get those evil, immoral people! They deserve to be smited!  They deserve your judgement!  Get ’em!

But the list doesn’t stop there. It keeps going.  He gets to envy. . . . pride. . . . . foolishness. . . . . gulp.  Suddenly our judgement is gone.  Jesus has gone from preaching to meddling.  It’s not just “them” who are sinful.  It’s us too.

And that’s the problem with lists. That’s the problem with any of us thinking we are better than anyone else. We are all lacking somewhere. We are have some fault, somewhere. We all miss the mark somewhere.

That’s why it’s called grace. That’s why we can’t earn it. That’s why we all are saved by faith, not by works.

If we are saved by works, then we’d all end up on the “naughty” list.

So today, let’s not keep lists.  Let’s not keep a list of “their” sin.  Or “our” sin.  Let’s just love.  Love as we’ve been loved.  Forgive as we’ve been forgiven.  And know that God wants our heart, above all else. And if He has our heart, He’ll take care of the rest.

Today, may we give Him our total hearts.